Jericho: The PETA Prize
You've heard of the X-Prize. Well, the fine people at PETA now have their own prize. If PETA's plan succeeds, the future will arrive in the summer of 2012.
What are we talking about? Lab grown meat.
"What's the big deal?" you say. "We've had tofurkey for years!" you say. We're not talking about a meat substitute. We're talking about real meat or nearly real meat - but meat that never left the factory or was ever next to a bone. No animal had to suffer the trials of factory farming or had to die so you could enjoy a tender, juicy steak. This is guilt-free meat - and there might be other benefits.
I first came across this idea while reading Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near. The idea is that if you can grow meat in the lab, you don't have to kill an animal and you use the materials in question more efficiently. It takes about five pounds of grain to get one pound of beef. Imagine if you could get a pound of beef for just two pounds of grain or even one to one. The rest of that grain could be used to feed people - lowering the over all price of grain. Not to mention changing the carbon footprint required to raise cattle.
Plus, there could be other benefits. What if the fat in your steak was GOOD for you? Well, if you are building meat in a lab, it shouldn't be too difficult to make the bad fats into good fats. I'm sure many of you have heard that meat fat is bad for you. You've probably also heard that Omega 3 fats are necessary for good health. Well, with a few changes, the Omega 6 fatty acids found in meat could be changed to Omega 3 fatty acids in lab grown meat. Then, your steak would not only be something that didn't kill an animal, but it would also be "health food". They could also enrich the steak with vitamins and minerals and other healthy ingredients. Imagine if you felt good about feeding your kid a McDonald's cheese burger?
I haven't agreed with many of PETA's methods and ideas across the years. But, encouraging this kind of research in this way is exactly where organizations like PETA should go in my opinion. Instead of throwing red paint on fur coats, encourage industry to find ways to not need to use animal based products. It benefits everyone - including the yummy cows!
What are we talking about? Lab grown meat.
"What's the big deal?" you say. "We've had tofurkey for years!" you say. We're not talking about a meat substitute. We're talking about real meat or nearly real meat - but meat that never left the factory or was ever next to a bone. No animal had to suffer the trials of factory farming or had to die so you could enjoy a tender, juicy steak. This is guilt-free meat - and there might be other benefits.
I first came across this idea while reading Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near. The idea is that if you can grow meat in the lab, you don't have to kill an animal and you use the materials in question more efficiently. It takes about five pounds of grain to get one pound of beef. Imagine if you could get a pound of beef for just two pounds of grain or even one to one. The rest of that grain could be used to feed people - lowering the over all price of grain. Not to mention changing the carbon footprint required to raise cattle.
Plus, there could be other benefits. What if the fat in your steak was GOOD for you? Well, if you are building meat in a lab, it shouldn't be too difficult to make the bad fats into good fats. I'm sure many of you have heard that meat fat is bad for you. You've probably also heard that Omega 3 fats are necessary for good health. Well, with a few changes, the Omega 6 fatty acids found in meat could be changed to Omega 3 fatty acids in lab grown meat. Then, your steak would not only be something that didn't kill an animal, but it would also be "health food". They could also enrich the steak with vitamins and minerals and other healthy ingredients. Imagine if you felt good about feeding your kid a McDonald's cheese burger?
I haven't agreed with many of PETA's methods and ideas across the years. But, encouraging this kind of research in this way is exactly where organizations like PETA should go in my opinion. Instead of throwing red paint on fur coats, encourage industry to find ways to not need to use animal based products. It benefits everyone - including the yummy cows!
posted by Jericho Brown at 4/23/2008 12:19:00 PM
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